Each year, the Writing Program recognizes the best essay written for WRI 1000 and for WRI 1100 with the Rauer and Hedges Awards.<\/p>\n
The WRI 1000 Rauer Award is named in honor of Ruthanna Rauer, Dr. Peter Moe’s sixth grade teacher. Every exam she gave was an essay exam, as Mrs. Rauer believed students must write to learn, whatever the subject matter, her pedagogy aligning so well with what both WRI 1000 and 1100 teach.<\/p>\n
The WRI 1100 Hedges award is named in honor of Richard Hedges, who graduated from Seattle Pacific College and then earned a Ph.D. from the University of Washington in counseling. Dr. Hedges worked for decades as a wise and effective clinical psychologist, and was a fine athlete, scholar, and supporter of SPU. He co-founded the Friends of the Library endowment and contributed generously to it.<\/p>\n
Together, these awards celebrate students and their writing, the teachers teaching them to do it, and the teachers who taught those teachers.<\/p>\n
Submissions for each award are accepted every spring, from week 10 through Finals. Essays must have been written within the previous academic year. Entries can be emailed to Rachel Johnson<\/a>, the Administrative Assistant for the Humanities. Awards are given the following fall.<\/p>\n 2024 <\/b>First Place\u00a0Coco Barnett<\/strong>, <\/em>“Emotional Warfare Through the Experiences of an Enslaved Woman in Kindred: A Graphic Novel Adaptation<\/em>,” written in Dr. Jennifer McFarlane Harris’s WRI 1000<\/p>\n 2024 <\/b>Honorable Mention\u00a0Anhelina Krysak<\/strong>, “Relationship Between Language & Identity,” written in Dr. Ji-Young Um’s WRI 1000<\/p>\n 2023 <\/b>First Place\u00a0Katelyn Flolo<\/strong>, “<\/em>An Examination of Private Religious Education in the United States,” written in Professor Kirsten Sundberg Lunstrum’s WRI 1000<\/p>\n 2023 <\/b>Honorable Mention\u00a0Malia Schumer<\/strong>, “Racialized Housing: A Descendant of White Supremacy,” written in Dr. Traynor Hansen’s WRI 1000<\/p>\n 2022 <\/b>First Place\u00a0Jaylen Wilson<\/strong>, “<\/em>Schindler’s List of Personal Stories,” written in Professor Jeffrey Overstreet’s WRI 1000<\/p>\n 2022 <\/b>Honorable Mention\u00a0Tani Yoshioka<\/strong>, “Howl’s Moving Castle<\/em>: Miyazaki’s Fairytale is Closer to Reality Than We Think,” written in Professor Jeffrey Overstreet’s WRI 1000<\/p>\n 2021<\/strong> First Place\u00a0Carissa Ing<\/strong>, “Clarity Nurtures Community and Change,” written in Dr. Sam Hushagen’s WRI 1000<\/p>\n 2021<\/strong> Honorable Mention\u00a0Hailey Hooper-Gray<\/strong>, “The Office<\/em>: ‘There’s a Lot of Beauty in Ordinary Things, Isn’t that Kind of the Point?'”, written in Professor Jeffrey Overstreet’s WRI 1000<\/p>\n 2020<\/strong>\u00a0First Place\u00a0Amber Easterling<\/strong>, “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Diversity; An Old Classic That Keeps Evolving,” written in Professor Jeffrey Overstreet’s WRI 1000<\/p>\n 2020<\/strong> Honorable Mention Katherine Kuang<\/strong>, “Blue-Collar Brilliance in a Gen Z\u2019s World,” written in Professor Paul Anderson’s WRI 1000<\/p>\n 2019<\/strong> First Place\u00a0Claire Conway,\u00a0<\/strong>“The Answer to Seattle’s Homeless Crisis is More than a Number,” written in Professor Gedney Barclay’s WRI 1000<\/p>\n 2019\u00a0<\/strong>Honorable Mention\u00a0Noel\u00a0Goodwin<\/strong>, “The Evolution of Women in the Marvel Cinematic Universe,” written in Dr. Yelena Bailey’s WRI 1000<\/p>\n<\/div>\n 2018\u00a0<\/strong>First Place\u00a0Marissa Lordahl<\/strong>, “He Did, She Did: An Examination of Reparations,” written in Dr. Traynor Hansen’s WRI 1000<\/p>\n 2018<\/strong>\u00a0Honorable Mention\u00a0Lydia Helt<\/strong>, “Ignorance: Bliss or Blindness: A Response to the Effects of Knowledge as Discussed in Materialism: A Fable<\/em> by Alfred D\u00f6blin,” written in\u00a0Dr. Mischa Willett’s WRI 1000<\/p>\n 2024<\/strong>\u00a0First Place Ryan Fecarotta<\/strong>, “Based on a (Somewhat) True Story: The Pitfalls of Cinema’s Historical Inaccuracies,” written in Professor Jeffrey Overstreet’s WRI 1100<\/p>\n 2024<\/strong>\u00a0Honorable Mention\u00a0Hailey-Anne M. Ohta<\/strong>, “Review of Comparing Aquatic Therapy to Land-Based Therapy and Which Improves Balance in people with Parkinson’s Disease,” written in Dr. Bomin Shim’s WRI 1100<\/p>\n 2023<\/strong>\u00a0First Place Caroline Rich<\/strong>, “The Stories of Patients and the Patience for Stories,” written in Professor Kirsten Sundberg Lunstrum’s WRI 1100<\/p>\n 2023<\/strong>\u00a0Honorable Mention\u00a0Mateo A. Cuadros<\/strong>, “The Captivating Allure of Abusive Love: Why Adolescents Stay in Abusive Relationships,” written in Dr. Marcia Webb’s WRI 1100<\/p>\n 2022<\/strong> First Place Lola Duropan<\/strong>, “Hovering Over Your Child: The Effects of Helicopter Parenting on College Students,” written in Dr. Marcia Webb’s WRI 1100<\/p>\n 2022<\/strong> Honorable Mention\u00a0Stella Bailey<\/strong>, “The Capability Rhetoric of Feminism and Its Ableism,” written in Professor Kirsten Sundberg Lunstrum’s WRI 1100<\/p>\n 2021<\/strong> First Place Annika Esvelt<\/strong>, “The Prevalence and Effect of Eating Disorders in Female College Athletes,”\u00a0<\/strong>written in Dr. Marcia Webb’s WRI 1100<\/p>\n 2021\u00a0<\/strong>Honorable Mention Jorie Skipper<\/strong>, “God’s Megaphone,” written in Dr. Doug Koskela’s WRI 1100<\/p>\n 2020<\/strong> First Place\u00a0Emily Stinson<\/strong>, “Student Protests in Murakami: Fighting the System,” written in Dr. Luke Reinsma’s WRI 1100<\/p>\n 2020<\/strong> Honorable Mention, Zeth Bolosan<\/strong>, “More Than What Meets the Eye,” written in Dr. Mark Walhout’s WRI 1100<\/p>\n 2019<\/strong> First Place\u00a0Noel Goodwin<\/strong>, “Reducing Nativism Against Arab Refugees: The United States\u2019 Inability to Fulfill\u00a0Allport\u2019s (1954) Theory of Intergroup Contact,” written in Dr. Ruth Ediger’s WRI 1100<\/p>\n 2019<\/strong> Honorable Mention\u00a0Megan Nixon<\/strong>,\u00a0“The Imitation of Nature: Photography\u2019s Role in the Rise of Modernism,” written in Dr. Mischa Willett’s WRI 1100<\/p>\n Our annual award ceremony includes the “How I Learned to Write” keynote address. In the address, a member of the SPU faculty reflects on their life as a writer, key moments in their education, key figures and teachers along the way, and important lessons learned about writing and about life.<\/p>\n \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a02023<\/strong>, Dr. Sara Shaban<\/a>, Assistant Professor of Communication<\/p>\n 2020\u201322<\/strong>, no award ceremony or keynote due to COVID-19<\/p>\n 2019, <\/strong>Dr. David Leong<\/a>, Associate Professor of Missiology<\/p>\nWinners of the WRI 1000 Rauer Award<\/strong><\/h5>\n
Winners of the WRI 1100 Hedges Award<\/h5>\n
“How I Learned to Write” Speakers<\/h5>\n